Electric iron stand



June9, 1936. I A, VA .2,043, 50s

ELECTRIC IRON STAND Filed May 7, 1934 3 Shets-Sheet 1 June 9, 1936. s.A. DUVALL 2,043,508

ELECTRIC IRON STAND v Filed May 7, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 E f m June 9,1936. s. A. DUVALL I 2,043,503

ELECTRIC IRON STAND Filed May 7, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 5 2 31 HIM/4'0[MINNIE 31 Patented June 9, 1936 PATENT OFFICE ELECTRIC IRON STANDStanley Alexander Duvall, New York, N. Y., as-

signor to Laura V. Ruffin, Louisville, Ky.

Application May '7, 1934, Serial No. 724,420

Claims.-

The present invention relates to supports or stands for flati'rons andis especially applicable to stands for electric fl'atirons although itis of improved usefulness with any form of iron.

With the use of the ordinary iron holder requiring the iron to be liftedfrom the board in order to place it on the holder or requiring an upwardpull on the iron in order to partly overcome the weight of the iron toreduce friction Where the iron is slid up an incline from the board tothe holder, it is impossible for the user to iron sitting down, becauseof this necessity for repeatedly lifting the iron or bearing up on theiron, without great fatigue due to the fact that the upward pull on theiron must be exerted at at least half an arms length. The result is thatthe user must stand up over the board in order to bring the shoulder ofthe lifting arm over the board and avoid having to reach out in lifting.

The present invention therefore seeks to provide an iron stand the useof which requires substantially no upward pull on the iron and ofiers aminimum resistance to movement of the iron onto and off of the stand.This object is accomplished in the main by the provision of anantifriction support for the iron together with an anti-friction guidefor guiding the iron up onto the support.

A further object of the invention is to provide simple and effectivemeans for holding the stand on an ironing board enabling the stand to beused on any standard, covered and padded ironing board without the useof elaborate clamping means or positive fastening means such as screwsor the like.

This object is accomplished through the provision of pointed anchor pinscarried by the stand and arranged to extend down through the padding ofthe ironing board into engagement with the board so as to resist lateralrelative movement between the stand and the board. Very slightpenetration of the board by the holding pins is amply sufiicient to-holdthe stand against sliding, because of the substantially negligible,frictional resistance oil-cred to movement of the iron onto the standand because the striking of the iron against the back of the stand"occurs only when the weight of the iron and the weight of the arm of theuser are exerting a downward pressure on the anchor pins.

A further object is to provide a stand capable of conserving the heat ofthe: iron while not in use or, in the case of an electric iron,whilebeing heated, and capable of effectively. insulating the heat orthe iron from the ironing board, without subjecting the polished surfaceof the iron to rubbing contact with portions of the stand and withsubstantial elimination of any tendency of the iron to stick to thestand.

It has been observed in practice, especially in 5 the case ofelectrically heated irons, that the iron has atendency to stick to thesurface of a support with slight though sufficient adherence toappreciably retard the sliding of the iron off the support, and thateven with anti-friction supporting members in the form of rollers ofextended area, there is an. appreciable tendency to stick. The presentinvention overcomes this tendency by the use of a novel arrangement. ofanti-friction bearing members with relatively small area of contact withthe surface of the iron.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from areading of the following specification with reference to the drawingsaccompanyi'ng the same.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a plan view of a preferredform of theinvention.

Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1 partly in longitudinal section.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a modification.

Fig. 5 is a side view of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6' is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

Referring to the drawings in detail, and first to Figs. 1 to 3, theinvention is here shown embodied in a stand for holding an electricallyheated iron of the cordless type and it is therefore provided with ahousing I at tile rear end, housing a suitable jack or electricconnecting socket (not shown) with which suitable plug contacts 2carried by the iron 3 are arranged to engage for the purpose ofsupplying current to the iron while at rest on the holder. The holdercomprises a base member 4 in the general form of an inverted shallow panwith a pair of guide flanges 5 extendingupwardly along each sidesuitably spaced to act as guides to guide the iron 3 (shown in dottedlines) into position on the stand to bring the plug. contacts 2 intoproper engagement with the connecting jack in the housing. Rollerbearing supporting members 6 and l are mounted above the top surface ofthe base member 4 between the guide flanges ,5 and journalled onspindles 8-9 respectively, mounted in the guide flanges and extendingtransversely of the length of the stand. An additional guide roller 19is mounted transversely of the stand near the leading edge and close tothe lowermost portion thereof, on. spindles II which in turn are mountedin upstanding side lugs l 2 carried by the base member 4.

The roller bearing supports 6 are arranged in a plane substantiallyparallel to the base member so as to provide a substantially levelroller bearing support for the iron 3 spaced above the base member ofthe stand. These rollers 6 form the sole direct support of the ironwhile the latter is resting on the stand. The rollers 9-l0 are guiderollers arranged at lower levels to guide the iron from the surface l3of an ironing board up onto the supporting rollers 6. In Fig. 3 aportion of the ironing board is shown in section. Here the board isshown as a covered and padded board, a portion of the board beingindicated at M while the padding is indicated at l5 and the cover clothat I6. As will be clear from Fig. 2,

the guide rollers 9|0 lie below the level of the top surfaces of thesupporting roller 6 and are arranged with their upper bearing surface inan inclined plane sloping downwardly from the elevated horizontal planein which lie the top surfaces of the supporting roller 6. The leadingedge or front edge portion I! of the base member 4 slopes down to thesurface of the ironing board with the front guide roller ll] partlycountersunk therein so as to bring the upper surface of the roller asnear as possible to the level of the surface of the ironing board. Toenable the heel of the iron to be pushed up over the roller l0 withouthaving to lift the iron, the heel of the iron is beveled upwardly andoutwardly from its lower surface as indicated at I8 in Fig. 2. To ensurerolling of the various roller supports 6 and guide rollers l and ID withthe movement of the iron thereover, that portion which contacts with theiron is made of a greater radius than that of the spindles, and toreduce to a minimum any tendency of the iron to stick to the rollersupport 6, their length of contact with the iron is made relativelysmall, for example less than one-half the width of the iron as shown inFig. 1.

The spindles 8 are mounted at one end in one of the guide flanges 5directly in small openings l9 while the other ends of the spindles aremounted in bushings 20 threaded into large openings 2| in the otherguide flange, the opening 2| being of sufficient diameter to permit thespindles with their rollers to be inserted therethrough in assembling.Preferably the spindles are stationary with the roller 6 arranged torotate freely thereon, although it is obvious that if desirable thespindles may be rotatably mounted in the guide flanges 5 with therollers either fixed to the spindles or rotatably mounted thereon.Similarly, the roller 1 is preferably mounted on its spindle 9 whichpasses all the way through the roller 1 and is mounted at each end inopenings 22 in the guide flanges 5.

To conserve the heat in the iron while resting on the stand and toinsulate the heat of the iron from the ironing board the lower surfaceof the stand is provided with an insulating shield 'in the form of aplate 23 of asbestos or equivalent heat insulating material secured tothe bottom of the stand by threaded fasteners 24 as shown in Figs. 2 and3. The thickness of the insulating plate 23 is so proportioned inrelation to the spacing of the bottom of the holder from the board so asto leave an air space between the plate 23 and the board which togetherwith the air space between the stand and the bottom surface of the ironand the plate 23 acts to effectively insulate the iron from the board toprevent scorching 0f the board andto conserve the heat stand by turningthem in the threaded bore.

of the iron while the latter is resting on the stand.

Because of the negligible amount of frictional resistance offered to thesliding of the iron up onto the stand and along the stand over theroller supports against the housing I, very slight anchorage of the ironon the board is necessary to prevent the stand from sliding along theboard each time the iron is moved onto or off the stand. It is thereforenecessary toprovide only a slight anchorage between the stand and theboard and this is effected by the provision of a pair of anchor pins 25carried by the stand and arranged to have their pointed ends 26 forceddownwardly through the padding l5 into slight penetrating engagementwith the body material of the ironing board, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The anchor pins 25 are threaded as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3 and aremounted in threaded bores 26 in enlarged portions 2'! of the sideflanges near the rear of the stand. The anchor pins may thus be moved upand down with relation to the To facilitate such adjustment the pins areprovided with knurled heads 28 for turning them in the threaded bore 26,the pins being frictionally held in adjusted position by means offriction springs 29 mounted in compression between the bottoms of theknurled head members 28 and the body of the stand. By so mounting theanchor pins they may be normally retracted into the holder when not inuse so as not to mar the surface of any object on which the holder maybe rested and may be readily adjusted downwardly to penetrate anythickness of padding and make positive penetrating engagement with theironing board when in use. This method of holding the stand againstsliding movement on the board has been found vastly more eiTective thansome of the known methods of simply roughening the bottom 1' of theholder or providing it with a plurality of short fixed teeth orserrations for engagement with the cloth or padding of the ironingboard. In those methods of holding the stand excessive wear is put uponthe cover and padding with ex-.

nary covered and padded ironing board in a convenient position and theknurled heads 28 of the anchor pins turned to adjust the anchor pinsdownwardly through the covering and padding of the ironing board intoslight penetrating engagement with the board. After proper adjustment,the pins remain in the adjusted position due to the binding effect ofthe friction springs v29 which are tensioned to press upwardly on thebottoms of the knurled heads 28. The weight of the iron and holdertogether with some downward pressure exhausted by the user in moving theiron onto and off of the stand, maintain firm engagement of the anchorpins with the board. With the iron 3 resting on the stand as indicatedin dotted lines inFig. 2 the heat of the iron is conserved and insulatedfrom the board by the asbestos plate 23. the air space between thehottom of the iron and the holder, and the air space between the bottomof the iron and the board. As the roller bearing supporting members 6support the iron in a substantially level position, and as the guiderollers 1 and I are arranged in a plane sloping toward the board, theuser may slide the iron off the holder onto the board with a minimum ofeifort. In returning the iron to the holder the user has simply to slidethe heel of the iron against the roller [0 at the leading edge of thestand whereupon the cam action between the beveled rear edge l8 of theheel of the iron and the roller It] will cause the iron to ride up ontothe roller l0 and then up onto the rollers 9 and 6 without the necessityof the user having to lift the iron from the board to place it on theholder or even to bear upwardly on the iron to reduce the frictionalresistance to the sliding movement. Thus very little force need beexerted in sliding the iron up onto the stand and what little force isnecessary is applied substantially wholly in a lateral direction and istherefore effectively resisted by the points of the anchor pins.

It is known to provide an iron stand with a ramp or inclined surface orbeveled extension at the leading edge of the stand to enable the iron tobe slid up onto the stand without having to lift the iron clear of theboard, but due to the frictional resistance against the sliding of theiron onto the holder the user feeling this resistance to the slidingmovement unconsciously pulls up on the iron to reduce the friction,which upward pull or lift on the iron must be so nearly as great as thatnecessary to raise the iron off the board as to tire the usersubstantially as much as if he had to raise the iron each time it wereplaced on the stand.

The present invention by its elimination of the necessity for the userhaving to exert any appreciable lifting force on the iron, enables theuser to iron while sitting down instead of having to stand up in orderto position the shoulder of his lifting arm over the, board. In the useof the present invention there is substantially no vertical stresses onthe arm of the user, the necessity for lifting being obviated and thenecessity for pressing down being in large degree eliminated by properweighting of the iron.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4, the holder.

comprises a fiat top portion 30 having a pair of guide flanges 3| and arear flange 32 extending upwardly from the top plate 30. The top plate30 is provided with a downwardly sloping front edge portion 33. A bottomplate 34 is arranged below the top plate 30 and held in spaced relationthereto by a plurality of spacer posts 35, the rear edge of the bottomplate being provided with a downwardly turned flange 36 which togetherwith the downwardly sloping front edge 33 of the top plate act tosupport the holder with the bottom plate 34 spaced above the surface 31of the ironing board. Anti-friction supporting members 38 and 39 in theform of ballbearings are mounted in pairs of registering openings 40 andM respectively in'the upper and lower plates, the openings being smallerin diameter than the ballbearings with at least the openings in theupper plate sufiiciently large to permit the ballbearings to projecttherethrough beyond the top surface of the upper plate so as to supportthe iron in spaced relation to the upper 5 plate. The ball bearings 38are arranged as shown in Figs. 5 and. 6 with their top surface in asubstantially horizontal plane so as to form a horizontal, anti-frictionsupport for an iron, while the ball bearing 39 at the leading edge of 10the stand is positioned in a lower plane in close proximity to the levelof the ironing board, being mounted between the plates in a lowerportion of the downwardly sloping, forward edges of the top and bottomplates, its purpose being to act as an anti-friction roller-cam andguide enabling an iron to be slid up onto the holder without having tobe lifted bodily from the ironing board.

The use of this modified form of holder is similar in all respects tothat of the preferred form shown in Figs. 1 to 3, the roller bearingsupporting member acting to enable the iron to be slid onto and off theholder with minimum expenditure of energy and substantially eliminatingany tendency of the iron to stick to the support because of theirreduced area of contact between the ballbearing supports in the iron. Itis to be understood of course that in the modification of Figs. 4 to 6,anchor pins such as the anchor pins 26 of Figs. 1 to 3 may be used with30 equal effectiveness.

While I have thus shown and described certain specific embodiments ofthe invention for the sake of disclosure, it is to be understood thatthe invention is not limited to such specific embodiments butcontemplates all such modifications and variations thereof as fallfairly within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an iron stand, the combination of means for reducing thefrictional resistance to movement of an iron over the stand, and anchorpins carried by the stand.

2. An iron stand adapted to rest upon a padded ironing board comprisinga base member, anchor pins carried by the base member and means foradjusting said anchor pins vertically with respect to said base member.

3. An iron stand adapted to rest upon an ironing board comprising a basemember, anchor pins carried by the base member and means to adjust theanchor pins, said means for adjusting said anchor pins comprising abolt, the head of said bolt being knurled, and a spring mounted incompression between the bottom of said knurled head and the body of thestand, to maintain adjustment of said anchor pins.

4. An iron stand for use upon an ironing board comprising a base, anchorpins carried by the base, and means for projecting and retracting saidanchor pins with respect to said base memher.

5. An iron stand for use upon an ironing board comprising a base, anchorpins carried by the base, and means for retracting said anchor pinswithin said base member.

STANLEY ALEXANDER DU'VALL.

